Extended business environments posing threat: report

BANGALORE, INDIA: Extended business environment including mobile work force, third party vendors, partners and other stake holders, is posing a significant challenge of information assets, said R. Chandrashekhar, secretary, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) releasing the Data Security Survey report.

According to the report, IT/ ITeS and  Financial services, seem to be better prepared to address information security and data privacy challenges.  These two segments also show greater propensity to adopt a new solution and practices where as manufacturers and PSUs appear to be laggards.

The report further says  that  information security controls and physical security controls are  converging and there is evident trend towards greater maturity in application security function.

The report based on recently conducted Survey  by Data Security Council of India (DSCI) through KPMG, in association with CERT-In indicates that Information Security has taken a prominent position in hierarchy.  Respondents seem to have implemented basic information security solutions and are keenly following the progress of technology that will enable securing data. The study was conducted under the Cyber Security Awareness Project sponsored by DIT, MCIT, Government of India and NASSCOM.  The survey covered 153 leading companies from sectors including Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, E-Commerce, IT & ITES, Telecom, and PSUs.

The objective of Data Security survey was to- Assess the importance given to information security and data privacy; Capture the leading practices and/ or standards adopted for Information Security and Data Privacy in organizations; Identify the major sources of data leakage, compromising of data privacy, in organizations; Study the status of Information and Physical Security Convergence and Awareness about the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, and interface with Cert-In when incidents happen.

The Secretary,DIT also launched the India Security Portal that has been developed by DSCI under the same project.  The portal will serve as a platform for raising awareness levels of a wide range of netizens from the industry, government, banks & financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, academic institutions, students in schools and colleges, and home users.

It also offers knowledge resources on various aspects of security to all stakeholders.  The portal is one-stop shop for all on information security, and will help enhance cyber security in the country.